Practicing Non-Violence When There's Violence All Around

When I decided to focus on ahimsa, non-violence, for 2018, I knew it would be relevant, because it’s always relevant. That’s why the yoga sutras describe the yamas – of which ahimsa is the first and maybe the most important – as the great, mighty universal vows. They’re always relevant.

But I also felt it more urgently now. We live in a world where violence seems increasingly common and nonsensical, but also plays out in a way that reinforces existing structures of power and inequality. It’s why white kids in a wealthy suburban neighborhood can still get gunned down at school – nonsensical. But their struggle to fight back wins them widespread acclaim, unlike the youth of color who fought gun violence in Ferguson and in Florida when Trayvon Martin was killed, and in Baltimore when Freddie Gray was killed and in the Twin Cities when Philando Castille was killed. And in countless other places, including in Sacramento just last week. Black and latinx kids who have been trying to fight gun violence have been called and treated like thugs; they have been dehumanized and dismissed. In a world characterized by ahimsa, those kids wouldn’t experience daily violence. And when they did, they wouldn’t be blamed, vilified and dismissed for insisting that they shouldn’t have to.

One of the most beautiful things about what the Parkland survivors are doing is how they are using their platform to elevate the voices of black and latinx youth. They are demanding the world see the visionary possibility of making the world safe for all kids, not just the rich(er) whit(er) ones. And they aren’t just “giving voice to the voiceless” (a phrase I hate). They are making space on the stage for those youth to speak for themselves. And then pledging to work together to find solutions that serve all of us.

It’s a reminder that alongside all the evidence out there that hope is a dying ember and happiness is a fleeting escape, there’s also evidence to the contrary. Real change is happening. People are becoming more engaged. Kids are leading us into a future that we didn’t think we could have.

I’m really trying to remember that right now, because it’s been kind of a rough month for me, mental health-wise. Sometimes I think this blog should be called yoga, social justice and depression, since a lot of what I’ve been working with for the past 18 months is how to address the mental health challenges of the moment. To be clear, my struggle with depression isn’t only because of our politics. But when you already have a challenging mental health cycle, and when part of that manifests as a difficulty sustaining hope and happiness, the circumstances out there in the external world can either provide evidence to challenge the inner reality or reinforce it.

Meanwhile, the situation with DJT has taken a more terrifying turn with the news that John Bolton will be the new National Security Advisor and Gina Haspel likely to lead the CIA. John Bolton is such a brutish, bullying figure, he couldn’t even get approved by a Republican Senate when we has nominated to be UN Ambassador by George W Bush. He proudly led this country into the war against Iraq on false pretenses, and continues even now to believe it was the right thing to do – despite the fact that most experts agree we have done nothing but sow chaos and confusion and cause the deaths of maybe a million (?) Iraqi civilians. John Bolton is a warmonger whose presence in the White House increases the likelihood of nuclear war with North Korea and some kind of war with Iran. Even more terrifying is that he is widely considered to be effective – he knows Washington, and knows how to pull the right levers to get things done. And he doesn’t need Senate confirmation.

Gina Haspel oversaw the waterboarding program at the CIA, instituting a kind of torture that defies humanity. Senators McCain and Rand Paul have been very critical of her in the past. Her position does require Senate confirmation and I hope we are going to see a renewed reckoning with what our country has done.

Still, it seems that violence is growing deeper roots right now, not being rooted out.

So what to do.

The yoga sutras include a detailed discussion of the obstacles we are likely to encounter in life and what to do about them. They obstacles will sound familiar because they cover a lot of the problems we encounter now – within ourselves and in our wider society: disease, inertia, doubt, pride, laziness, attachment to sense gratification, wrong knowledge, failure to make progress, and failure to maintain progress made. The sutras were written roughly 2500 years ago, and yet those obstacles still resonate.

I was really moved to read the sutra that accompanies this discussion of obstacles, given the challenge of my mental state: Sorrow, despair, unsteadiness of the body and irregular breathing further distract the consciousness (1.31). An apt description of how it feels to be depressed.

The point of laying out the obstacles is not to dwell on how hard the path may be. It is to be reminded that no matter what, we will encounter them. The question before us is how to overcome. And of course the sutras answer that pretty definitively: single minded effort; practice and detachment, with devotion. And, when confronted with ideas that run counter to the values we hold, like non-violence, bring to bear the opposite. Be peaceful. Be loving. Don’t yield, but don’t use violence to fight back. That includes the violence of the mind – hateful thoughts and cynical judgements.

It is a difficult time. But we who believe in justice cannot rest. I hope you are all finding ways to create quiet, calm, peace amidst all the chaos around us.

With love, gratitude and solidarity forever.